Social Security benefits play a vital role in reducing poverty. Without Social Security, 21.4 million more Americans would be poor, according to the latest available Census data (for 2011). Although most of those whom Social Security keeps out of poverty are elderly, nearly a third are under age 65, including 1.1 million children.…

The Census Bureau last week released a mixed set of data about poverty, income, and health insurance coverage in 2011.[1]
On the positive side, the number of Americans without health insurance dropped by 1.3 million and the share of uninsured Americans fell by more than in any year since 1999. Young adults took advantage of a …

On September 12, the Census Bureau will release official poverty figures for 2011, as well as additional data related to the impact of various safety net programs in keeping people out of poverty last year.
What to Look For:
Poverty could rise again; if it does, it will have risen significantly in 8 of the last 11 years. Such an …

The Census Bureau will release official 2011 poverty figures on September 12. If the figures show that poverty rose, as some analysts predict, two key factors will almost certainly be a reduction in unemployment insurance benefits in 2011 and a decline in public-sector jobs, particularly among state and local government workers.
In …

Some conservative critics of federal social programs, including leading presidential candidates, are sounding an alarm that the United States is rapidly becoming an “entitlement society” in which social programs are undermining the work ethic and creating a large class of Americans who prefer to depend on government benefits rather …